, 1887-03-19
THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA.
An Entertaining Account OF DIR. Junker's
Journey-Incidents of the Trip.

An Entertaining Account of DR.. Junker's
Journey-Incidents of the Trip.
The natives of the Uganda district be-
lieve in n supreme being, but they do not
worship Him, considering him SO in
finitely superior that the worship of in
significant mortals would not be recog-
nized by Him; but they worship inferior
deities, especially the god of the lake,
and or a voyage make libations to Him.
They have also a god of warm fact,
they have their Jupiter, Neptune and
Mars. Warrior chiefs, too, who have
gods. This is very much like the Homeric
mythology. The government of Uganda
is based on the feudal system. The chiefs
own land and fulfill the duties of magis-
t~rates; but there is o right Of appeal, and
important cases como before q chief or
chiefs of the highest order. The kingdom
is really n limited monarchy; it is gov
erned by a council consisting of the king
and some chiefs of the highest order, in
Guiding the chief butler, baker, and,
above all, the chef de cuisine, the cook.
Without the sanction of these august
personagcs the king can do nothing.
When this parliament is dissolved-it sits
for three months-the members, like our
NJ. P.'s, retire to their country seats.
The king keeps al enormous harem, and
polygamy is an institution. Children and
girls are sold for guns, ammunition, etc.
In the court there are dwarfs and
buifoons, as there were at European
courts in the olden times.
Baker writes that needles are in great
demand-thc natives being exceedingly
clever tailors and furriers-a handsome
girl may be purchased for thirteen
needles, to be exchanged in Unyoro for
an elephant tusk, which would DO worth
GEO or ESQ in England. In Unyoro
there is an established valuo for a healthy
young girl-such a person is equal to a
single elephants tusk of the first class or
L new shirt. Thus a girl might be pur-
chased for q shirt, and subsequently OK
changed for a large elephants tusk.
Slavery is u national institution of the
country. In Unyoro the girls are pur-
chased for various commodities, such as
brass coil, bracelets, bark, clothes, cot
ton, shirts, ivory, etc. The Unyoro
country lies at the southeast bank of the
Albert Nyanza.
DIR. Junker was allowed to proceed on
IL JUL MY III u DOiL btiOiibhiB ~ III
mission after he had made some hand
some presents to the king. This place is
at the south of Victoria Nyanza. He re-
manned here four days. Toward the
southwest the banks lose the appearance
of fertility which they had on the north;
and rocky hills without verdure, or
merely covered with stunted mimosa or
coarse grass, run to the margin of the
lake, where they end in naked rocks. In
the narrow bays formed by these ridges
are here and there villages nesting
among banana groves.
DIR. Junker now got to Ukumhi. Here
the hills recede again, md beds of am
batch are found growing i'll the water.
The natives construct boats from this
weed, which is SO extremely buoyant that
a boat ten feet long and four feet wide
made of it will support at least twelve
men. The lowest point at which this
pithy weed is found is about latitude 10.
Other parts of the coast are often fringed
with watcrlilies, and the islands at the
south of the lake are as beautiful us fairy
land. 1t is an e~verchanging kaleidoscope
at one spot purple convolvuh and the
graceful papri abound, around which in
Vulnerable quantities of water fowl Of
every description hover and swim; while
here and there huge hippopotami are seen
laundering, and crockodiles basking
where there happens to be ~sandbanks or
grassy creeks. In the middle distance are
seen plantain groves and grassy plains of
a vivid emerald, while in the background
stand gigantic trees with branches twisted
most Enthusiastically. From Ukumhi DIR.
Junker went on To Ut Salala, where
there is a church mission station. Thence
he went with his porters and donkeys
to Uyui. Uyui may almost be called a
town. 1t is one of the largest col
lections of huts in Africa. Here and
there are places shaded by immense fig
trees, under which the natives sit. This
is Il prosperous station. 1t is ten miles
northeast from Tabora. the great center
of Arab trade.
The doctor then continued his journey
over the Ugodo country. through the
Rubal pass to Mpwapwa. Mpwapwa
lies on the western slopes of the Usagara
mountains, adjoining the vast tract Of
forest which separates it from the table
land of Uugodo. Clusters of villages are
scattered all over the plains, then in
habitants supporting themselves on the
product of the soil and by breeding
cattle. The country is fertile, and pro-
duces large crops of dhurra, Indian cor
and other cereals. The natives dwell in
mud huts, built square, with a large
court house in the center, into which las
is common in the Soudan) the cattle are
driven at night to prevent their being
Jumped, - as the Cape expression runs;
the doors are strongly built of wood.
The inhabitants are IA mixed race Of
Wagogo and W~assagara and other tribes.
Toward the west stretches an immense
plain; to the north are fields Of dhurra,
and To the south and east vast forcsts-a
paradise for a sportsman, as all kinds of
eame-lions, %leopards, antelopes and
bufTaloes rove there. In n southerly
direction tower lofty mountains; indeed,
it were difficult to conceive a more
romantic spot than that where our
traveller rested.-Cairo Cor. London
News.
Lamaism in China.
Tho Pav Jonathan Croasatt who for